An Uber driver has been sentenced to five years in prison after fatally striking a passenger who became sick in his vehicle, although a jury cleared him of murder.
Hayadulla Turkmani, 53, reportedly became enraged last year after Michael Ashton, 28, vomited a small amount onto the rear seat of the car.
Mr Ashton left the vehicle and attempted to clean the seat outside his home in Basildon, Essex. The driver then struck him with the car. During sentencing, the judge described Turkmani as the aggressor in the confrontation.
Mr Ashton was described as someone who “didn’t have an aggressive bone in his body”. He was taken to the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, where he later died from a serious brain injury on October 4, 2025.
Turkmani had denied charges of murder and manslaughter. But after deliberating for two and a half days, a unanimous jury at Basildon Crown Court acquitted him of those offences and found him guilty of causing Mr Ashton’s death by dangerous driving.
The verdict prompted an emotional reaction in the courtroom, with spectators crying and shouting, “No! No!”
Judge Samantha Cohen said Turkmani should have noticed Mr Ashton in the road, ruling that his driving demonstrated a “complete disregard” for the danger he created.
She said: “I am satisfied you knew he was still in the close, you had no reason to think otherwise; you simply refused to pay regard to where he was.
Uber driver Hayadulla Turkmani, 53, has received a five-year prison sentence for fatally striking a customer who had been sick inside his car
Michael Ashton, 28, was taken to the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel after being hit, but the council worker died on October 4, 2025, from a severe brain injury
“You should have seen him and should have stopped before you hit him.”
However, the judge said she was bound by the jury’s decision. That meant she had to accept Turkmani had not intended to strike Mr Ashton as he stood in the road.
Judge Cohen ordered Turkmani to serve half of the five-year sentence in prison and imposed a seven-and-a-half-year driving disqualification.
She told him: “I am satisfied you were the aggressor in this argument.
“When you arrived at their home, Mr Ashton’s partner Sophie Carroll decided to do her best to clean up. You remained angry.”
The judge added: “I am satisfied you were the aggressor in this argument. As you drove away you couldn’t resist an abusive parting shot towards Mr Ashton.”
She also noted evidence that Turkmani displayed symptoms consistent with shock after the collision and attempted to help raise the vehicle from Mr Ashton.
Earlier in the week, the seven-man, five-woman jury convicted Turkmani of causing Michael Ashton’s death by dangerous driving.
Judge Cohen twice warned members of the public gallery after emotional outbursts interrupted the reading of the verdicts.
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In a victim impact statement, Mr Ashton’s partner Sophie Carroll said she had lost her “soulmate” and the life they had planned to build together.
She said: ‘We spoke about getting married. We had the same ideas about what we wanted in life, we wanted children together and spoke about spending the rest of our lives together.
‘Since he passed away I have struggled to find my place in life without him.
‘It’s not just Michael I have lost, but the life we shared, the future we planned and the opportunity to spend the rest of my life with him.’
Meanwhile Jayne Ashton, Mr Ashton’s mum, said his family have been handed a ‘life sentence’.
She said: ‘This should never happen to anyone or any family.
‘Throughout all of this we have been made to feel like he was the aggressor, but my son didn’t have an aggressive bone in his body.
‘It makes me sad, talking about how he left handprints in the bonnet trying to push the car away from him.
‘I wonder if he was scared, so petrified for his life he was able to try to push two tonnes of metal away from him.
‘This is a life sentence for us. He was the best son and friend, if everyone was more like him the world would be a happier place.’
Prosecutors contended Turkmani, who was aided in the dock by an Afghan Dari interpreter, had run over Mr Ashton with his automatic Toyota Prius in anger.
But Turkmani told the jury he was ‘panicked and frightened’ and ‘did not see’ the six-foot man.
The court heard how Mr Ashton, a Barking and Dagenham council worker, had spent an evening with his partner before requesting an Uber to take them home.
Mr Ashton became nauseous and ill – before a row broke out between Mr Ashton and Turkmani.
Basildon Crown Court heard Mr Ashton and his partner went inside and found cleaning wipes, which they then used to mop up the mess.
Turkmani said he accelerated in an attempt to get away from Mr Ashton, who he said ran towards his car.
While accepting he was ‘annoyed’, Turkmani rejected the prosecution’s suggestion that he was angry enough to deliberately target Mr Ashton.
Turkmani, who the court heard left Afghanistan in 1999 to escape Taliban persecution, denied charges of murder, manslaughter and causing death by dangerous driving.
